Road Trip to Louisiana

Our family was invited to accompany Matt to Louisiana while he was the speaker for a Student Weekend.  We took a long road trip and made some fun stops on the way.

We stopped in Amarillo where Matt and I cashed in some movie gift certificates to see Top Gun at the IMAX while we had free babysitting (Thanks Papa and Mimi!)

We also stopped near Fort Worth to visit some friends.  We went to the Fort Worth Stock Yards where every day, cowboys lead long horn steers down the streets in front of crowds.  They also had a large maze made out of cattle stalls where the kids raced around trying to find letters.

An extra special treat was seeing my cousin, Lainie, and her family.  I haven't seen her in 8 years.  Our kids had a great time meeting and getting to know each other. 

Maylee Grace and Marlee

Marlee, Maylee Grace, Camden, Payton, Layne

Once we arrived in Louisiana, we got to stay in a cabin at North Toledo Bend State Park.  The lake was right outside our door.  It was beautiful and we had a great time!

Camden jumped right in with all the other youth and joined in all the games.  The littles were having fun cheering on the teams.

Sunday morning worship with the youth of First Baptist DeRidder, La

Annual Valentine's Dates

For years, we have taken each of the kids out on one-on-one dates during the month of February.  They get to pick what they do.  Daddy takes his princess and Mommy takes each of the boys.

Maylee Grace and Daddy went to Build-a-Bear and made a bunny named Zyla (that was what she named it).  Then, they went for a ride on the carousel.  They followed all that fun by sharing a milk shake at Chick-fil-a.

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Payton and Mommy went to Gravity Park where we jumped for an hour!  We played some intense dodge ball and did some fancy tricks into the foam pit.  After burning all those calories, we went to Krispy Kreme to get a doughnut.

Camden and Mom went to Hinkle Family Fun Center.  We rode go karts, played minature golf (where Camden whooped my tail) and played Lazer Tag (Camden also dominated).  We followed our day of competition with a snow cone from Bahama Bucks.

Shootin' it up

We took a Saturday afternoon and took the kids to shoot the BB gun.  They all had a blast!  Daddy threw out the challenge that whoever could hit the center of one of the targets, they would win a treat for everybody.  Well.....Mommy hit the bulls eye....don't mess with her.

Happy Birthday Matt!

We have had a birthday tradition for Matt the last few years.  We ride the train downtown and have lunch at Tucano's, a fabulous Brazilian restaurant.  It's something we all look forward to!

Riding on the upper level of the train

We visited Mrs. Lisa from church at her office downtown.

Back at home for cupcakes!